The eight-episode series is backed by HBO's gleaming reputation for brilliance in television.

There are only three episodes of Breaking Bad left. Everything needs to be sorted out in three episodes. It seems a lot, but we’re pretty sure that once those credits roll on the season finale, we won’t be left disappointed by the ending. That fact that it’s ended, though, may well leave some people in a state of withdrawal.

Enter True Detective. Starring Matthew Mcconaughey and Woody Harrelson, Kevin Dunn, Michelle Monaghan, Alexandra Daddario and Elizabeth Reaser, the brand new original HBO drama follows two detectives as they hunt for a serial killer in Louisiana, and is set across seventeen years.

If Walter White carried on the boxset tradition of the anti-hero – think Tony Soprano’s continued public support despite being a horrible man, or Jimmy McNulty’s drinking, tomfoolery and system manipulation – then McConaughey and Woody Harrelson take it to the next level. They’re certainly not straight edge, letter-of-the-law cops, and we can’t wait to see what the former is into.

Fans of the multi-season format may be disappointed to hear that this is eight-episodes-long, and then you can kiss goodbye to the characters as you know them – or will know them. If there is a True Detective season two, then it’ll tell a different story, in a different place and in a different time.

Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club

Eight episodes is neat, it’s tidy, even if the subject matter as promised by the harrowing trailer won’t be. It’s nice to see a change of pace. A miniseries will represent great re-playability, and provides two months of fast paced storytelling. The format works for crime dramas of this nature, too, where lengthy seasons work for characters dramas like Breaking Bad and The Sopranos.